Training and its effect on injury recovery

[bcgannon]

Preface:
I'm a 31yo who has been following the SS program for roughly 4 months. 3 weeks ago while performing some very intense, hardcore G.P.P (ok, I was chasing my 9mo around the living room) I suffered what I would consider a significant muscle strain in my lower abdomen (just below and to the right of the navel). I took 6 days off from any strenous activity, skipping two lifting sessions in the process.

It felt much better when I returned to the gym and took it very easy the first week as to not further aggravate the injury. To my suprise I was able to do most of the lifts without any real discomfort (squats, deads, BP, PCleans). I've since gone back to my normal working-set weights in these lifts without problem.

There are, however, a few key lifts (the press, chin-ups, sit-ups specifically) that I cannot perform without receiving a very sharp,"stop doing that!" pain. Very light weights are tolerable, but nothing close to a working set.

Merely tightening the core for the squat or deadlift for instance doesn't bother me. It's when I have my arms extended overhead and the ab muscles are stretched that the contraction causes pain (i.e. the lockout portion of the standing press).

The Question:
While I wouldn't presume to receive free medical advice from you regarding my own specific injury, I am curious how you handle these sorts of core injuries when they occur to the athletes under your training.

The options I see available are:
a) rest until 100% recovered (this option seems the most sucky to me)
b) substitute the seated versions (more isolation/less compound...which I understand to be less desirable) in order to keep strengthening the primary movers while resting the injury
c) lower the weight significantly on the full version of the lift. Sacrificing progression on the primary movers in order to strengthen the injury and its surrounding muscles.
d) a combination of B & C.

What I've settled into for the past few workouts is a situation where I do the warmups using the full exercise up until I start to feel discomfort, then using the partial movements for the work sets. The idea being that the injuried area is engaged in active recovery just short of further damage while still forcing adaptation by hitting the primary movers with heavy weights. I plan to continue doing this until I'm able to do the real lift with real weight.

I'd appreciate any input you have on the subject.
Thanks!
Brian

P.S. Your books make for excellent back-of-the-toilet books. Which, I'm sure, is the complement every author craves.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You are directly observing here the difference in the way the abs work when doing direct concentric work vs. postural stabilization. An injury such as the tear you have (and which I happen to have now too) can blend into the background when doing torso support work (I will not here use the "C" word) but can't be ignored when you ask it to directly move the ribcage closer to the pelvis, or resist the eccentric version. The educational part is that this occurs when you press heavy.

The damn thing will heal, but it will heal faster if you do as much direct work as you can stand. This is maybe the only legit use of the "crunch", a normally ineffective direct ab movement that will allow to to apply just as much stress to the tear as you can tolerate without re-injuring it. Use multiple sets of 25, and report back to us.

[bcgannon]

Ew, crunches. The other, other "C" word.

In short: I do believe I am on the mend. Taking to heart the advice of doing as much work as I can tolerate without re-injuring, I've a much better idea of what my limits are. I've experienced some small improvement just over the past 4 days (granted it has been 3+ weeks since the injury). What used to be an "ouch" is now just sorta an "oh", to use the technical jargon. Still nowhere near being able to do a full sit-up yet without re-injury.

Brief timeline:
12/13 - Crunches 25x3 - real discomfort during the first set. Pain eased up a bit in the 2nd and 3rd sets. Iced. Later did some light stretching.

12/14 - Crunches 25x3 - crunches = same. Lifted that evening, did a handful of fully assisted chins on the assistance machine. Didn't feel great but tolerable.

12/15 - Crunches 25x3 - Better. Only real discomfort came from having to do crunches. (never been a big fan)

12/16 - Crunches 25x3 - about the same as 12/15

12/17 - No crunches - Lifted. Feeling better so I pushed myself a bit with the press. Did 3 work sets with 145lb (I was at 165lb pre-injury) with minimal discomfort. This was a big improvement from just last week. Also did 2 sets of chins with less assistance. Cut it short cause I was really starting to feel it on the 2nd set.


I'll do "big picture" update in a week or two so as to not bore everyone with the minute details.

Many thanks for the guidance.